Mini South Africa has designed and launched a colourful campaign to build national spirit in 2010. There will be no Union Jacks; no God Save the Queen; and no Queen’s English accents for the British-born car brand – just good old ‘Mzansi flavour. The campaign, '6 Colours To Stand By', is Mini’s way of encouraging South Africans far and wide to proudly display the country’s flag on their cars. To achieve this, Mini is offering South African flag mirror caps to everyone keen to raise the flag on the roads of South Africa at no charge, while stocks last.

The '6 Colours To Stand By' campaign has one goal – to get South Africans excited about their country in 2010. “We spent a long time looking at how we could successfully design a campaign around one pure emotion - passion. We eventually found the answer looking at quintessential local flavour; it simply had to be the six colours of our flag,” explains Karen Valle, General Manager: Mini South Africa.

The symbolism of the Y shape in the flag matched MINI’s communication objective of uniting the various diverse elements within South African society and choosing to take the road ahead in unity.

True to its name, '6 Colours To Stand By' is vibrant, colourful, and has a distinctive passionate spirit which is what consumers in 65 countries around the world have come to expect from the Mini brand. South African urbanites are invited to visit a Mini dealer and have their mirror caps flagged. “Besides stirring a passion for our flag, what it stands for, and to add to the excitement that all South Africans should feel about sport in 2010, we also hope to reach a wider audience of people who are passionate about cars,” says Valle.

The mirror caps are made of an elastic fabric that allows them to stretch over a car’s wing mirrors and have been sized and designed to accommodate any make and model, but fit Minis best. Mini recommends that the caps are removed when washing at a car wash to retain the fit and the intensity of the six colours, although it’s not mandatory. Full visibility of the mirror is retained after the fitment; nor does the flag cap interfere with the function of the mirror.

Should drivers wish to remove the caps, they can easily do so themselves with no special equipment or strength needed for the job at hand. Fitment of the Six Colours takes six minutes for both mirrors from start to finish.

There is no doubt that 2010 is the year of the fan, so whether a Mini or ‘Mzansi’ fan, the car manufacturer is inviting South Africans to flag their mirrors at their closest MINI dealer. “Our aim is to get as many people as possible to brand their car with the South African flag, and we’re challenging other car manufacturers, and any South African business to do the same or similar. In the process we’ll raise our flag like it’s never been raised before,” concludes Valle.

For more information on how to become a fan of ‘Mzansi’ and the '6 Colours To Stand By' campaign, visit www.MINI.co.za, search 1 MINI SA on Facebook; 1_MINI_SA on twitter; email [email protected] or call 012 522 2801.